Helpful Places releases 2022 DTPR City Cohort Program Report
Nearly one year ago today, Helpful Places announced our inaugural 2022 DTPR City Cohort — a first-time program aimed at enabling four cities to deploy DTPR, learn from one another in the process and identify ways to improve the DTPR standard.
Twelve months later, we’re thrilled to have seen what the Angers Loire Metropolitan Region in France, Town of Innisfil in Canada, and Boston and Washington D.C. in the USA were able to accomplish and to share the results of this program in our 2022 DTPR City Cohort Program Report.
Each deployment of DTPR involved:
- Collecting the technical and data governance details needed for the DTPR standard about the public space technologies that were part of the DTPR City Cohort’s deployments — such as the data collected and associated data processing, handling and retention periods — obtained from each technology vendor
- Deploying a consistent method for public communication and gathering resident feedback on public space technologies through the DTPR system (via physical signage and online)
- Engaging with residents, using qualitative user research methods, to gather feedback on both the DTPR standard and public space technologies, with the goal of informing future strategy and decision-making
- Participating in a series of workshops with other municipalities also deploying DTPR, for shared cohort discussion and peer learning
- Releasing public communications and contributing to media pieces raising awareness of the technologies being piloted and their reasons for deploying DTPR in their community
Across the four DTPR deployments, a total of 48 signs were installed to represent 13 different technologies and their functions. Thanks to the 2022 DTPR City Cohort Program, nearly 1,400 people engaged with the DTPR signage directly through the various QR codes — in addition to people who were engaged through in-person surveys and events.
The 2022 DTPR City Cohort Program was an experiment on multiple levels. The biggest part of this experiment was to see whether carrying out these DTPR deployments, and sharing their stories, would compel new adoptions of DTPR. As of this report’s publication we are excited to share that DTPR is currently being implemented in Sydney Olympic Park in Australia, and we will be announcing additional implementations in Europe and the United States in the Summer of 2023.
What the 2022 DTPR City Cohort Program truly demonstrated was that DTPR was no longer a prototype, but a global open source standard in its own right, in demand by place managers, technology companies and communities. For this reason, as the steward of DTPR, Helpful Places is developing a new governance structure for the DTPR standard in 2023, to include a community of practice with municipalities and organizations who have implemented DTPR either with the support of Helpful Places or using the open-source resources.
You can learn more about our work and learnings from deploying DTPR with these four innovative cities by taking a look at the 2022 DTPR City Cohort Program Report.
“Our team at Helpful Places collaborated with the teams across these four municipalities to understand the challenges and opportunities for cities to adopt DTPR successfully and have learned tremendously from these experiences. We have immense gratitude for all the government partners, universities, strategic partners and communities who were involved in this experiment for DTPR — helping us move one small step closer to a world where people can understand and have agency for technology in public spaces,” Jacqueline Lu, Co-Founder and President, Helpful Places. Co-Lead and Contributor to Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR).
“We stand at a critical point in the evolution of our cities and public spaces where technology is increasing all around us — yet most of us are oblivious to how this technology is being used and to what ends. This is a global challenge and we need global solutions,” said Jeff Merritt, Head of Urban Transformation at the World Economic Forum. “I commend this initial cohort of cities who are leading by example to demonstrate and shape the future of technology governance, bolstering transparency and public trust in our cities.”
“The Angers Loire Metropolitan Region (ALM) is happy to have taken part in the 2022 DTPR City Cohort Program alongside the major North American cities of DC, Boston and Innisfil in the Toronto region in addition to having been the very first European city to use DTPR in tandem with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The support provided by Helpful Places and CIVITEO was key to this experience.
Elected officials are often concerned around how best to address issues around data both comprehensively and in a way that guarantees total transparency of data to their citizens — the DTPR system helps alleviate this concern. We believe that DTPR can enable community buy-in and therefore the success of regional “smart” projects,” Constance Nebbula, Vice President of Angers Loire Métropole, Lead for Intelligent Territories and President of Open Data France.
“For the last several years, the CIVITEO team has been working with many cities on the deployment of their smart city strategies. We build strategies and rules for data use and are often faced with questions about how to inform citizens about data, especially here in Europe where we have GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). What data is being collected? Is there any personal data? Who manages it? How can we control how it is used?
We are very happy to have been involved in the DTPR pilot in Angers alongside Helpful Places. Angers’ smart city initiative is one of the most ambitious in Europe, and the city’s leaders have chosen to involve citizens in a highly innovative way. The DTPR standard’s pilot implementation in Angers was a success; we are delighted to have contributed to the development of the standard, and in particular to have been able to translate it into French,” Jacques Priol, CEO and Founder of CIVITEO.
“The digital citizen is on the rise and in the Town of Innisfil we are striving to create a dynamic, interactive and inclusive experience for those we serve. We want to build trust with our residents so that they know that their data is being used responsibly. Our DTPR pilot solidified that we can provide transparency as we deploy technology across the municipality. This powerful initiative allows people to embrace technology — not fear it — resulting in new service options that we could have never imagined. Many thanks to the Helpful Places team for all of their support!” Mike Melinyshyn, Chief Financial Officer and Director of Corporate Service & Innovation for the Town of Innisfil.
“Making our cities more open, connected, and transparent is a collaborative project. We were glad to partner with Helpful Places and other cities in the inaugural DTPR City Cohort Program to share learnings and discoveries as we tested new DTPR deployments. We look forward to continuing to build the DTPR community and expand pathways for technology transparency in Boston,” Yo Deshpande, Technologist for the Public Realm at Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, City of Boston.
“Recognizing that we must work harder to inform the public of the deployment of public space technologies, which can often seem left un-explained or remain invisible to the public, the DDOT project team partnered with Helpful Places to bring a Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR) deployment to pilot new technologies.
It is essential for the District to increase transparency and resident engagement. The DTPR communications standard and platform allows the District to gather feedback on the technologies being tested, and conduct user research to inform future strategy and decision-making,” Stephanie Dock, District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Innovation Division Manager.
If you would like to learn more about DTPR or stay informed about DTPR and Helpful Places we encourage you to stay in touch:
- Join the DTPR Slack workspace
- Contribute to the open-source resources
- Email us at dtpr@helpfulplaces.com
- Follow Helpful Places on Twitter and LinkedIn
